Process of extracting precious metals.



Nn. 707,926. Patented Aug. 26, |902. W. HILT &. C. E. LANE. PROCESS 0F EXTRACTING PRECIOUS METALS.

(Application filed Mar. 20, 1902.)

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WILMER lIILT, OF COLES, CALIFORNIA, AND CLARENCE E. LANE, OF ASHLAND, OREGON.

PROCESS OF EXTRACTlNG PRECIOUS lVlEl'lllLS.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of Letters Patent No. 707,926, dated August 26, 1902.

Application filed March 20, 1902. Seria-l No. 99,036. (No specimens.)

To a/ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, WILMER HILT, a resident of Coles, in the county of Siskiyou and State of California, and CLARENCE E. LANE, a resident of Ashland, in the county of Jackson and State of Oregon, citizens of the United States, have invented a new and Improved Process of Extracting Precious Metals, of which the followingis a full, clear, and exact description.

Our invention relates to the formation and condensation of metallic-zinc vapor for the purpose of precipitating precious metals from their solutions.

The invention consists in the novel steps of the process, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification,

j? for heating the same, the blaze from the blast-pipe being indicated at 3. A vessel 4 is provided with a cover 5 and is mounted within the receptacle l. From a point near the upper portion of this vessel a pipe 6 leads vertically downward to a point below the surface of the solution 8, contained in the vessel 7. Zinc-vapors are formed in the vessel/1, as shown at 9, and are conducted downward through the pipe 6 and condensed beneath the surface of the solution 8. The result is a kind of finely-divided zinc is constantly being formed in the solution, and this inelydi vided zinc immediately replaces the precious metals, causing the same to be precipitated almost instantly. The process when carried out by this or any analogous apparatus is exceedingly rapid and elfective. I consider the reason for the rapidity of the action is to be found partly in. the purity of the Zinc and partly in the immediate contact between it andthe solution. The zinc thus treated appears to act as if in a sort of nascent state relatively to the precious metals.

The process may be used for the extraction of both gold and silver, and is especially adaptedfor the extraction of gold from cyanid solutions.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. The process herein described, of extracting precious metals from solutions thereof, which consists in producing zinc-vapor and conducting the same beneath the surface of said solutions, Where it immediately replaces said precious metals, thereby precipitating the same.

` 2. The process herein described, of extracting precious metals from solutions thereof, which consists in producing cyanid solutions of said metals, vaporizing metallic zinc by means of heat, and conducting the vapor thus formed to a point beneath the surfaces of said solutions, thus producing finely-divided zinc which replaces the precious metals and thereby causes their precipitation.

3. The process herein described, of extracting precious metals from solutions thereof, which consists in producing zinc-vapor and condensing the same beneath the surfaces of said solutions, thereby causing the zinc to replace said precious metals in said solutions.

In testimony whereof We have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

WILMER I-IILT. CLARENCE E. LANE.

Witnesses:

EUGENE WALRAD, XVILLIAM A. PATRICK. 

